Late Quaternary ice flow and sediment delivery through Hinlopen Trough, Northern Svalbard margin: Submarine landforms and depositional fan

The morphology and distribution of submarine landforms in Hinlopen Trough, Northern Svalbard margin, and the upper continental slope beyond, are investigated using swath-bathymetric data, together with side-scan sonar, acoustic profiler records and sediment cores. Sun-illuminated images reveal a number of landform assemblages on the sea floor of Hinlopen Trough and confirm that this depression was occupied by an ice stream during the Late Weichselian glaciation around 20 ka before present. The geomorphology of the inner-shelf is characterised by bedrock drumlins and ice-sculpted bedrock. There is a middle-shelf transition from a rock bed to an unconsolidated sedimentary bed that contains highly-attenuated drumlins and megaflutes formed within a dark grey, matrix-supported diamict, interpreted as subglacial till. Outer-shelf landforms are mainly iceberg ploughmarks. The geomorphological imprint identified from Hinlopen Trough is similar to that of many former ice streams; the trough is dominated by elongate landforms orientated parallel to the inferred flow direction and is lacking in transverse features indicative of inter-ice stream locations. A characteristic down-flow progression in landform elongation is also observed, suggesting an increase in ice velocity across the continental shelf. The lack of grounding-zone features imaged from swath-bathymetric data implies that deglaciation was probably rapid within the trough. A large depositional fan exists on the upper continental slope beyond the trough, characterised by debris flow deposits relating to the down-slope transport of glacigenic sediment. Order of magnitude calculations of the volume of glacigenic sediment on the continental slope indicate that the ice stream provided high rates of debris delivery of around 5–7.5 m/ka. This suggests that Hinlopen Trough ice stream represented a major route for the transfer of ice and debris to the Hinlopen Fan on the northern continental margin of Svalbard during the Late Weichselian glaciation.

► We examine the distribution and morphology of submarine landforms in Hinlopen Trough.
► Hinlopen Trough was occupied by an ice stream during the Late Weichselian glaciation.
► The lack of grounding-zone features imaged suggests that deglaciation was rapid.
► A large trough-mouth fan, Hinlopen Fan, exists on the upper continental slope.
► The ice stream provided rates of debris delivery to the margin of around 5–7.5 m/ka.